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“Perversion files” show locals helped cover up

PORTLAND, Ore. — Again and again, decade after decade, an array of authorities — police chiefs, prosecutors, pastors and local Boy Scout leaders among them — quietly shielded scoutmasters and others accused of molesting children, a newly opened trove of confidential papers shows.

At the time, those authorities justified their actions as necessary to protect the good name and good works of Scouting, a pillar of 20th century America. But as detailed in 14,500 pages of secret “perversion files” released Thursday by order of the Oregon Supreme Court, their maneuvers allowed sexual predators to go free while victims suffered in silence.

The files are a window on a much larger collection of documents the Boy Scouts of America began collecting soon after their founding in 1910. The files, kept at Boy Scout headquarters in Texas, consist of memos from local and national Scout executives, handwritten letters from victims and their parents and newspaper clippings about legal cases. The files contain details about proven molesters, but also unsubstantiated allegations.

The allegations stretch across the country and to military bases overseas, from a small town in the Adirondacks to downtown Los Angeles.

At the news conference Thursday, Portland attorney Kelly Clark blasted the Boy Scouts for their continuing legal battles to try to keep the full trove of files secret.

“You do not keep secrets hidden about dangers to children,” said Clark, who in 2010 won a landmark lawsuit against the Boy Scouts on behalf of a plaintiff who was molested by an assistant scoutmaster in the 1980s.

“These guys (abusers) basically were in a candy store, the way they thought about it,” Mones said.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the files weeks in advance of Thursday’s release and conducted an extensive review of them. Clark also was releasing the documents on his website: kellyclarkattorney.com

The files were shown to a jury in the 2010 Oregon civil suit, and the Oregon Supreme Court ruled the files should be made public. After months of objections and redactions, the Scouts and Clark released them.

In many instances — more than a third, according to the Scouts’ own count — police weren’t told about the reports of abuse. And even when they were, sometimes local law enforcement still did nothing, seeking to protect the name of Scouting over their victims.

Victims like three brothers, growing up in northeast Louisiana.

On the afternoon of Aug. 10, 1965, their distraught mother walked into the third floor of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office. A 31-year-old scoutmaster, she told the chief criminal deputy, had raped one of her sons and molested two others.

Six days later, the scoutmaster, an unemployed airplane mechanic, sat down in front of a microphone in the same station, said he understood his rights and confessed: He had sexually abused the woman’s sons more than once.

“I don’t know how to tell it,” the man told a sheriff’s deputy. “They just occurred — I don’t know an explanation, why we done it or I done it or wanted to do it or anything else it just — an impulse I guess or something.

“As far as an explanation I just couldn’t dig one up.”

He wouldn’t have to. Seven days later, the decision was made not to pursue charges against the scoutmaster.

The last sliver of hope for justice for the abuse of two teenagers and an 11-year-old boy slipped away in a confidential letter from a Louisiana Scouts executive to the organization’s national personnel division in New Jersey.

“This subject and Scouts were not prosecuted,” the executive wrote, “to save the name of Scouting.”

———

An Associated Press review of the files found that the story of these brothers and their scoutmaster, however horrendous, was not unique.

The files released Thursday were collected between 1959 and 1985, with a handful of others from later years. Some have been released previously, but others — those from prior to 1971, including the story of the three scouts in Ouachita Parish — have been made public for the first time.

The documents reveal that on many occasions the files succeeded in keeping pedophiles out of Scouting leadership positions — the reason why they were collected in the first place. But the files are also littered with horrific accounts of alleged pedophiles who were able to continue in Scouting because of pressure from community leaders and local Scouts officials.

The files also document other troubling patterns. There is little mention in the files of concern for the welfare of Scouts who were abused by their leaders, or what was done for the victims. But there are numerous documents showing compassion for alleged abusers, who were often times sent to psychiatrists or pastors to get help.

In 1972, a local Scouting executive beseeched national headquarters to drop the case against a suspected abuser because he was undergoing professional treatment and was personally taking steps to solve his problem. “If it don’t stink, don’t stir it,” the local executive wrote.

Scouting’s efforts to keep abusers out were often disorganized. There’s at least one memo from a local Scouting executive pleading for better guidance on how to handle abuse allegations. Sometimes the pleading went the other way, with national headquarters begging local leaders for information on suspected abusers, and the locals dragging their feet.

In numerous instances, alleged abusers are kicked out of Scouting but show up in jobs where they are once again in authority positions dealing with youths.

The files also show Scouting volunteers serving in the military overseas, molesting American children living abroad and sometimes continuing to molest after returning to the states.

But one of the most startling revelations to come from the files is the frequency with which attempts to protect Scouts from molesters collapsed at the local level, at times in collusion with community leaders.

It happened when a local district attorney declined to prosecute two confessed offenders; when a three-judge panel included two men on the local Scouting executive board; when law enforcement sought to protect the name of Scouting and let an admitted child molester go free.

Their actions represent a stark betrayal, says Clark, who won the case that opened the files to public view. “It’s kind of a deal. The deal is, our society will give you incredible status and respect, Norman Rockwell will paint pictures of you, and in exchange for that, you take care of our kids,” Clark said. “That’s the deal, incredible respect and privilege. But there was a worm in the apple.”

The Louisiana case certainly contained all the essentials for a police investigation and, perhaps, a conviction: The scoutmaster admitted to raping a 17-year-old boy on a camping trip and otherwise sexually molesting two other boys; the victims corroborated his confession. But evidently, no charges were ever filed.

The man was let off with a warning that should he be found with young men in the future, he was subject to immediate incarceration at the state prison.

The man “was asked to leave the parish, and if he was caught around or near any boy or youth organization, he would be sent to state prison immediately,” a Scouting executive wrote to national headquarters. “We are indeed sorry that Scouting was involved.”

———

With the deadline to disclose the files looming, the Scouts in late September made public an internal review of the files and said they would look into past cases to see whether there were times when men they suspected of sex abuse should have been reported to police.

The files showed a “very low” incidence of abuse among Scout leaders, said psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Warren, who conducted the review with a team of graduate students and served as an expert witness for the Scouts in the 2010 case that made the files public. Her review of the files didn’t take into account the number of files destroyed on abusers who turned 75 years old or died, something she said would not have significantly affected the rate of abuse or her conclusions.

The rate of abuse among Scouts is the not the focus of their critics — it is, rather, their response to allegations of abuse. In the case of the files released in Portland, most salient is the complicity of local officials in concealing the abuse by Scouts leaders.

Warren told the AP such complicity “was simply quite a natural desire to want to be somewhat protective over (the BSA).”

Certain cases, well-detailed by the Scouts, illustrate how it happened.

In Newton, Kan., in 1961, the county attorney had what he needed for a prosecution: Two men were arrested and admitted that they had molested Scouts in their care.

One of the men said he held an all-night party at his house, during which he brought 10 boys, one by one, into a room where he committed, in his words, “immoral acts.” The same man said he had molested Scouts on an outing two weeks prior to the interrogation.

But neither man was prosecuted. Once again, a powerful local official sought to preserve the name of Scouting.

The entire investigation, the county attorney wrote, was brought about with the cooperation of a local district Scouts executive, who was kept apprised of the investigation’s progress into the men, who had affiliations with both the Scouts and the local YMCA.

“I came to the decision that to openly prosecute would cause great harm to the reputations of two organizations which we have involved here — the Boy Scouts of America and the local YMCA,” he wrote in a letter to a Kansas Scouting executive.

He went on to say that the community would have to pay too great a price for the punishment of the two men. “The damage thusly done to these organizations would be serious and lasting,” he wrote.

———

When cases against Scouts volunteers or executives went forward, locals often tried and sometimes managed to keep the organization’s name out of court documents and the media, protecting a valuable brand.

In Johnstown, Pa., in August 1962, a married 25-year-old steel mill worker with a high school education pleaded guilty to “serious morals” violations involving Scouts.

The Scouting executive who served as both mayor and police chief made sure of one thing: The Scouting name was never brought up. It went beyond the mayor to the members of a three-judge panel, who also deemed it important to keep the Scouts’ names out of the press.

“No mention of Scouting was involved in the case in as much as two of the three judges who pronounced sentence are members of our Executive Board,” the Scouts executive wrote to the national personnel division.

In Rutland, Vt., in 1964, William J. Moreau pleaded guilty to “having lewd relations” with an 11-year-old Scout, according to a contemporary newspaper account. According to the files, the 11-year-old was one of a dozen Scouts who stayed overnight at Vermont’s Camp Sunrise. The Scouts, as is demonstrated repeatedly in the files, talked to the parents about their concern for “the name of the Scouting movement” if charges were brought, but were rebuffed — the parents were insistent on filing charges.

Moreau, a 27-year-old insurance adjuster and assistant Scoutmaster, resigned his position, but a local prosecutor and the police department made sure the Scouting name was never publicly associated with the crime, despite the fact that the abuse was conducted by a Scoutmaster on Scouts at a Scout camp.

“The States Attorney with whom I talked late last night and the local police assure me they will do everything in their power to keep Scouting’s name and Camp Sunrise out of this,” a local Scouts executive wrote in a letter to the national council headquarters.

In newspaper clippings attached to the files detailing Moreau’s charges and his plea, no mention of the Scouts is ever made.

———

Over the years, the mandatory reporting of suspicions of child abuse by certain professionals would take hold nationally. Each state had its own law, and the federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act passed in 1974.

The Scouts, however, wouldn’t institute mandatory reporting for suspected child abuse until 2010. They did incorporate other measures, such as a “two-deep” requirement that children be accompanied by at least two adults at all times, and made strides in their efforts to combat pedophilia within their ranks.

According to an analysis of the Scouts’ confidential files by Patrick Boyle, a journalist who was the first to expose about efforts by the BSA to hide the extent of sex abuse among Boy Scout leaders, the Scouts documented internally less than 50 cases per year of Scout abuse by adults until 1983, when the reports began to climb, peaking at nearly 200 in 1989.

Attitudes on child sex abuse began to change after the 1974 law, said University of Houston professor Monit Cheung, a former social worker who has authored a book on child sex abuse.

“Before 1974, you could talk to a social worker who could (then) talk to a molester and that could maybe stop abuse,” Cheung said, noting that most abuse happens within families.

But mandatory reporting made the failure to report suspected abuse a crime.

“That’s the change, that you’re no longer hiding the facts of abuse,” Cheung said.

The case of Timothy Bagshaw in State College, Pa., is illustrative of the changing national attitude to mandatory reporting. Bagshaw, a Scouts leader, was convicted of two counts of corruption of minors in 1985. But he wasn’t the only one to face charges.

The Scouts learned of the abuse months before it was reported, and forced Bagshaw to resign at a meeting, but he wasn’t reported to police. That failure was costly for Juanita Valley Council director Roger W. Rauch, who was charged with failure to notify authorities of suspected child abuse.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to contact anyone. I felt it was the parents’ responsibility,” Rauch told the Centre Daily Times in 1984. “We acted very responsibly.

Retired state trooper James D. Hall is facing charges of child molestation and third-degree assault stemming from accusations made by two female minors, both under the age of 13.

Hall, 70, of Neosho, who served the Newton County area as a member of Troop D, worked as a Missouri State Highway patrolman for more than 30 years.

Hall turned himself in to the Newton County Sheriff's Department on Wednesday, Oct. 10, and was subsequently released after posting $5,000 bond.

According to Missouri CaseNet, a separate condition of Hall's release is that he have no interaction with individuals under the age of 17.

Though the Newton County Sheriff's Department performed the initial investigation, those findings have been turned over to the office of Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, due to Hall's previous professional relationship with the Newton County prosecutor's office.

According to a probable cause affidavit, written by Jared Roderick of the Public Safety Division of the Missouri Attorney General's Office, the most recent alleged incidents occurred in February 2012.
Hall is charged with a Class B felony for first-degree child molestation, stemming from alleged repeated incidents when Hall allegedly inappropriately touched an 11-year-old girl's buttocks and genitals through her clothing while she was visiting his home.

According to Roderick's statement, Timothy Perigo, 40th circuit court judge, said he spoke with the juvenile on Feb. 15, at which time the juvenile described a separate incident when Hall had allegedly kissed her inappropriately.

"Judge Perigo stated [juvenile] told him that on the last visit to the Hall residence, James Hall kissed her on the lips, and described the kiss as not how a grandparent would kiss," the probable cause statement reads.

Roderick states in the probable cause statement that Michael Barnett, detective with the Newton County Sheriff's Office, spoke with Hall on Feb. 17, 2012, at which time Hall stated that he has not touched anyone inappropriately.

Roderick also lists a separate incident, involving a second juvenile girl, also age 11 at the time.

The alleged incident, which is the basis for the third-degree misdemeanor assault charge, allegedly occurred at a local church.

According to Roderick's statement, Perigo confirmed in a previous interview that Hall did assist with a youth program at that church during the same time period that the alleged incident occurred.

According to the probable cause statement, the second juvenile stated in a forensic interview, conducted on Feb. 22, 2012, that an adult helper, named "JD", had assisted her with reading the Bible on numerous occasions at church. While doing so, he allegedly rubbed his hand inappropriately on her top and inner thighs, which she stated made her feel "awkward, weird and funny."

"[Juvenile] stated on prior incidents, she scooted away from JD or crossed her legs to stop the touches," the report stated.

The two counts were filed by the state attorney general's office on Tuesday, Oct. 9.

If found guilty, first-degree child molestation could result in up to 15 years imprisonment, and not less than five years. If found guilty of third-degree assault, the defendant could face a $300 fine, no more than 15 days imprisonment, or a combination of the two.

Hall is being represented by Neosho attorney Charles Ross Rhoades.

Rhoades filed a motion to dismiss and a request for a bill of particulars on Wednesday.

Hall is scheduled to appear before Dade County Associate Circuit Judge David Munton for arraignment at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, in the Division 1 courtroom of the Newton County Courthouse.

Brad, as a ZOGling whigger ass-clown going ass-to-mouth not only with David Duck and in charge of helping to bring TraitorGlenn Miller ZOGbux in to help this secret Ashkenazi jew with a bleeding kike bunghole from Crohns/jew ass-GAIDS into the bowel Movement, I visited your website to try and confirm if it's true that you allow a Martin Lindstedt -- as a chickenshit whigger that does swallow adding an 'a' makes me pretend to being an 'oafishul' ZOGbot -- to post on your forum, seems like you do. How dare you allow anyone that Rabbi Lender and TraitorGlenn Miller don't like for posting our past criminal history to post on your forum without our permission?

Do you know his history and if so why do you allow him to? The only reason that we disallowed Kevin Alfred Strom, one of our National Alliance Piercetard butt-buddies to post here on VNNF/TGMNNF/GFRTCNNF is that the gut-sick guido kikenweasel with jew ass-GAIDS wanted some Elishaba pussy. Can't get anythang else. You don't actually think we have a real problem with jews, faggots, perverts and ZOGbots, do you, when here on VNNF we be nothing else?
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Would you mind responding. I go on duty to spell Vargina the LinderMiller Meercat licking the gut-sick guido kikenweasel with jew ass-GAIDS in about 15 minutes and muh bladder is full. I might have to drink muh own urine and not get a swig of cool, refreshing Dos Lindstedt Piss.
.

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You Nazis may be insane . . . .
. . . . but us whiggers are typpycull!!!

Of course that doesn't keep that jew Linder from lying otherwise. I could sue it but I'd prefer to skin it.

Anyway, I don't have any doubts any more about your ability to defend yourself in a debate against Linder and that other informant Giles.

I am writing you a 'heads-up' if you do an interview with this "Peter Goodman" of NimBusters Radio tonight. Peterless Goodmamzer is a jew as are many of the NimBusters. NIM-Busters started out as an anti-racist site because the "National Independence Movement" -- a secessionist states-right group allegedly didn't pay this Stan Lawson a fee for web page work. Now the place is simply chaotic and perverse.

Anyway, watch your ass tonight what with all the jews and mamzers and faggots. I think that they want to have fun with you. If in doubt, sit down, shut up and hang up.

When I showed up at 1:15 p.m. I filed the Motion to Disqualify LePage for Bias and Prejudice and got it filestamped. Roxie went to use the restroom and I seen jewdge LePage and Prostitutor Skouby in there. There was no witnesses, certainly not the DFS baby-stealing bitches or my Grandson Adam, by now he would be 11, who supposedly told these swine that I had kissed his penis.

Skouby handed me a copy of the paper above, telling me that the charges had been dismissed -- for now -- the Statute of Limitations hadn't run out. I asked him what had happened -- he couldn't get my grandson to lie against his grandfather? Skouby said that "certain witnesses declined to testify." I said, "After destroying my family and torturing me for 3 1/2 years you couldn't get my grandson to lie for you. He probably never even said what you claimed, or if he did it was under coercion." Skouby looked a bit scared. LePage looked back with the dark flat unsmiling eyes of a mud-shark.

I asked LePage if he had gotten the waiver of service and federal civil complaint yet. LePage said, "No comment." I then handed Skouby the Motion for Disqualification. Skouby then said that it was moot. I said that it still had been filed today and I had served him.

Roxie entered the kortroom and I told her that the case had been dismissed.

We left and the kort clerk reminded me that I was due my $10,000 cash bond. I told Kay Baum's clerk (The County Clerk) about the dismissal. And collected the check. I then went out to see John Ford at the Neosho Daily Douche. He wasn't in but I left a copy of the nolle pross. Then I tried calling all my friends I could.

I have gotten home and figured out how to post this.

I feel vindicated after five years of hell. And with the money of my own, I shall devote a tithe to helping out my DSCI Movement Allies and friends so that we can destroy ZOG/Bablyon. I shall NOT shave off my half-beard nor cut my long hair. Pastor Khazar-Hammer will ride the jewtube proclaiming Death to the House of Ahab. For he who dies of Ahab in the cities shall be eaten by the dogs, and he that dies of Ahab in the fields shall die of the birds. The war shall continue, I shall carry out my Oath to YHWH, and I shall reunite my family if I have anything to say about it.

A blessing and friendship to my friends and allies who stuck by me when the days were dark. Death, destruction, curses and damnation to my enemies, the enemies of my and YHWH's People.

Well, it has been four years ago today that the Newton County ZOG/Babylon had to dismiss the bogus charges against me, and I still haven't done any serious skinning or gelding of regime criminals and their spawn -- yet.

But soon, very soon, there will become such a civil war such as never seen before and never again because the Great Tribulation shall sweep all the social offal aside with fire and sword.

I reflect upon this day; I called one of my five stalwarts who stuck by me yesterday, and he is still alive after nearly dying of cancer [mis]treatments while I was locked up in the NutHouse in 2007. He is stronger than I've heard for the past year. He turned 75 last week. And my friend Pastor John Britton called me today as well. One of my stalwarts died of lung cancer several years ago and I suspect that another one has died as well the past year or so. But maybe he is laying low from his 'yard Bolsheviks' in the Piss-Pul's Dem[on]ocratic Repub[l]ic of Columbia, Missery. Another one I've lost most track of.

I reflect that my own biological brother is a thieving piece of shit; indeed I've heard from his own mouth about how he wished that I had been unjustly convicted for life so that he could steal the family estate blind. Similarly around in 2001 I heard him say that he was glad the government put our Father in prison wherein he suffered from strokes that would kill him 20 days after he left prison for threatening to shoot a crooked lawyer on the South Dakota State Supreme Kort bench, thus turning me from a whigger into a Revolutionist. Likewise, I've regained my own biological sister, who is content to live her life on a quarter-million while my own brother cannot live on ten times as much but has to steal the pitiful ewe-lamb of our own family home.

Let us White men reflect that whatever happens and happens soon, that it is YHWH's Design that is being followed, although we cannot understand it or do anything but sometimes dimly glimpse what is going on because our Israelite hearts are set right.

Whatever happens and whatever horrific acts of cruelty and horror that we must commit in order to pay the bill in full and set the stage for the Second Return of Jesus Christ, let us understand that we cannot turn loose of the plow but must go on to the end, regardless of the cost and heedless of the pain.

Understand too that almost all of the time we will be alone, except at times when we are helping and being helped by our spiritual brothers in Christ. These incidents shall occur like flashes of lightning so that we know that we are not alone, that there are others like us. And in those times we will take a moment's comfort, then proceed again.

I'd like to thank my Israelite brethren who stood by me, who never believed ZOG/Babylon's lies, even though you were unable to assist me directly. I pray for you as I do my five stalwarts. As for you biological and adoptive Spawn of Satan who have done me and my family wrong, I have not forgotten you either, and I look forward to destroying you all from the face of the earth and sending you and all of your kind, young and old, rich and poor, clever and stupid, screaming to Hell.

A sizeable crowd gathered Friday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery to participate in the Child Abuse Prevention Walk, sponsored by the Children's Division of Newton/McDonald County.

Prior to the walk, Jim Otey, guest speaker, gave statistics about child abuse and encouraged participants to help eliminate the problem of child abuse.

"I want to shed light on the scope of the child abuse problem – both statewide and in Newton and McDonald counties," Otey said. "Also, I would like to tell you a little bit about child services and then finally, some ways that you can get involved to help if not completely eliminate the problem of child abuse, to at least minimize it."

He noted the problem of child abuse is not new, however, awareness of the problem and efforts to curb it are more in the spotlight now than ever before.

"How widespread is child abuse?" he asked. "Well, in Missouri just last year in 2012, (there were) 63,000 hotline calls placed by agencies, school administrators, family members, neighbors, all who were being proactive with their concerns of a possibility of abuse taken place. Thankfully, not all of those calls resulted in a positive finding, not even 10 percent of them. Instead, 8 percent, but when you consider 8 percent that is 4,600 actual confirmed cases of child abuse. Locally, I am talking about in Newton and McDonald counties, the 40th Circuit Court, the numbers are just as astounding, with 903 hotline calls being made and 53 actual cases or 6 percent of the calls turning out to be confirmed as child abuse or neglect cases by family services."

He noted that is more than 4,700 total cases of child abuse or neglect in 2012 alone.

"That is 4,700 too many — I am sure that you all would agree," Otey said. "In 2012, statewide, more than 16,000 kids were put in out of home care because they were in danger if they stayed in the existing family structure. The average age of that child, 9 ½ years and the length of stay, just more than two years. Locally, 495 kids started the year out of the home, an additional 224 more were affected during that, meaning that more than 600 of our Newton and McDonald County kids were without their moms and dads because it wasn't safe for them to be home with their parents."

Page 2 of 2 -- Otey added there were 234 other hotline calls with no allegations of abuse or neglect, but the caller simply believed that the family was at risk of abusing or neglecting a child or that there were specific needs within the home that needed to be addressed.

"And that leads me to the part of the speech about family services," he said. "They not only do what is necessary to put a child in a safe place after abuse has been discovered, but tirelessly make efforts to prevent abuse or neglect before it occurs."

Otey addressed being involved.

"Certainly you being here today is the first indication that you are interested in doing what you can to eradicate the problem, but of course there are more that you can do to get involved," he said. "For instance, have you ever considered becoming a foster parent? In the 40th Circuit Court area, there are 37 licensed foster homes and facilities. There is a need for more. The children's division also needs community partners to help meet the physical needs of impact families that lack the resources to provide a safe haven, I encourage you to get involved with that. You can help mentor children who are in need of just a positive adult relationship in their lives. You can sponsor events for children and out-of-home placement."

"Finally, just simply help recruit a family that you think might be a candidate to provide foster care," he said. "You have already taken the first steps to get involved by attending today, take another and then take another one and before long, you will be walking in the door of children's services asking to assist them."

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House on Thursday passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Bill Lant, R-Pineville, that would extend the amount of time social workers have to investigate claims of child abuse.

The bill would change state law to give the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services 30 business days — eight more days than currently allowed — to complete an investigation of child abuse or neglect.

Lant said several caseworkers, already facing a backlog on investigations, had asked for the legislation to allow the additional time. The bill would not affect emergency removals of children; it would apply to actions taken by the Children’s Division after a child has been removed from a home.

Lant said there is no firm number on how many cases are backlogged, but he said he knows that the number is large and is growing.

“We don’t have people that are properly trained, and they get out there and start doing what they’re doing and it overwhelms them,” he said. “You add to that the fact that last year all of the metropolitan areas in the state doubled the amount of children that were removed because of neglect.”

The bill, House Bill 1092, passed 150-1 and is headed to the state Senate.

Rep. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, expressed concern during floor debate Thursday that the bill could worsen the backlog already faced by the department.

“I haven’t heard any justification that the eight days would absolutely fix the problem,” he said.

Lant said the bill is supported by the Department of Social Services, which he said “feels like this is a good step toward solving this problem.”

Democrats such as Rep. Rory Ellinger, D-St. Louis, said that while they support the bill, they also believe the problem could be addressed by fully funding the Children’s Division.

“We don’t have near enough money in general,” he said. “We’re trying to do our best with additional appropriations.”

Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon has called for a significant boost to the Children’s Division’s funding. His fiscal 2015 budget recommendations include $11 million for 23 staff members to serve “the increasing number of children in state custody” and $2.3 million to increase the salaries of field workers.

Lant said the Joint Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect will begin meetings in the next few weeks to continue to explore the crisis facing the Children’s Division. Lant will chair the committee, he said.

“This is a first step,” he said of the bill passed Thursday. “We don’t have a lot of time. We’ve got to come up with answers. This is a critical problem.”

Organizers are gearing up for the second annual Child Abuse Awareness Walk, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery.

The walk is being put on by agencies in Newton and McDonald County who work with families who have been affected by child abuse or neglect.

Explaining the main purpose of the event is Christi Sims, vice president of the Friends of Newton and McDonald County Social Services and liaison to the Children’s Division.

“To bring awareness to our local community about child abuse and neglect, and the ongoing needs of families in Newton and McDonald County,” she said. “There will be guest speakers, special recognitions, balloon release to honor victims of child abuse, a lunch (hot dogs, chips, water), and lots of walking. The presentation portion of the event will occur at 10 a.m. Following the formal presentation, participants are encouraged to walk, and may come and go at their leisure. Participants are also encouraged to wear blue, as this is the color associated with child abuse awareness.”

The entire community (Newton and McDonald County) is invited to come

It doesn’t cost anything for people to attend this event. Last year, Sims said they had approximately 200 people participate.

There will also be a special awards ceremony, with the presentation of the Denice Butler Award.

“It will be given to a Children’s Division employee who has shown great commitment and success in working with families affected by abuse or neglect,” said Sims.
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On this 9th Anniversary of Pastor Martin Luther Dzerzhinsky Lindstedt's false and illegal arrest on bogus child molestation charges on May 10, 2005 designed to deliberately railroad him to prison and then have him murdered there, Pastor Lindstedt in this under 10-minute video explains that since there is no Rule of Law, and torture is now not off the table, that anything goes in destroying this criminal regime of the Mighty Evil Empire of ZOG/Babylon the Third and Final.

When there is no more Rule of Law, when the criminal regime's police, lawyers, judges, legislators, bureaucrats can and do anything they please regardless of the Law and destroying the People, then a Revolutionary Majority of two to three percent likewise are bound by no Law or mythical "Social Contract" and in taking power can, should and must destroy the ancient regime and anyone and anything of the herd animals which get in the way of their seizure of power -- in the Name of the People. Survival is its own reward.

This lesson must be learned in blood every few generations, and carried out without remorse or pity. There are no "Innocents" in a Revolutionary civil war, only "Sides." What side are you on?

There is no political problem which cannot be solved without the extermination of millions of regime criminals and their families and that of hundreds of millions of defective regime criminal enablers of the corrupt herd. Every Mighty Evil Empire has been destroyed by the Tide of History, and usually along with the People who founded the Mighty Evil Empire, as they have become as corrupt as their regimeist leadership.

But if the ancient regime can be purged, along with the herd animals that enable it, then a Revolution can mean a re-birth of a People under a new form of government in which all corruption and social cancer is eliminated.

Kathi Olson the executive director of the Children’s Center says, “The time issue is a huge factor cause these are very serious allegations.”

The Children's Center is where victims of alleged abuse are interviewed by Division of Family Services, law enforcement and others. It’s a multi- disciplinary approach.

Olson says, “Sometimes the previous deadline wouldn't allow the collection of evidence of everything that was needed.”

And former juvenile attorney Joe Hensley says, “It’s rare you can get that type of forensic evidence in a sexual abuse case in a 30 day time frame.”

Under the bill sponsored by Lant, DFS workers who used to have just thirty days to investigate abuse or neglect cases will have forty-five days.

And in cases of child sexual abuse up to one hundred and twenty days.

Hensley says its time consuming for workers after getting a hotline call, “They go and follow up with the person who made hotline call. That person will give five or six names of other persons to corroborate this. Then that workers has to go talk to every single person, and the school, and pediatrician.”

Hensley says there’s a danger in rushing such cases and workers making conclusions without all the evidence. “That , of course can lead to some bad results. If you have someone who gets a preponderance of evidence finding because the workers didn't have time to get all the evidence together, that’s gonna haunt them for life. Alternatively, if they have to conclude a report as not having enough evidence and that person was a perpetrator, and they end up working for a school or daycare, we obviously don’t want that as a society either.”

Kids sometimes stay at Children’s Haven during investigations.

Executive Director Stephanie Thies says, “I think sometimes families feel the investigation isn’t as thorough as it should have been. So, this will definitely give investigators time to make those decisions, really informed decisions about what’s the best interest of our kids.”

It’s not just the time issue that Representative Lant considers a concern. He says he’ll be looking at better pay fAll child abuse investigators whom all say are overworked and underpaid.

Hensley says, “This is a very difficult job. It’s a thankless job. And frankly, they don’t get paid enough for what they do. By the time the workers get to the experience level to where they can process these reports faster, they're already burned out. These are workers who see the worst of the human condition on a daily basis.”

Representative Lant says turnover among DFS workers is at fifty-four percent. He plans to address pay and salary inequities at a June meeting.
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